#this is a gay man and a lesbian and neither of them know it yet but. aough

[mamawasatesttube]

kon & nat's conversations in steel #46 hit sooo good if you think about it as a closeted gay guy talking to a closeted lesbian...

[staryuee]

“HEY, CAN I SLEEP ON YOUR CHEST?”

꒰warnings꒱ implied AMAB/AFAB, somewhat gender neutral terms but written w/ gay dynamics in mind, suggestive

⠀꒲ ` characters . . . kaeya, itto, alhaitham, wriothesley ⚣ yelan, yae miko, clorinde, arlecchino ⚢

⠀꒲ ` notes . . . meant for the gays and lesbians respectively! male characters are written in a gay POV, women are written with lesbian POV — my little gift for pride month ♡ shoutout to all my male readers i’m sorry there’s content drought for you i hope i sufficed even if just slightly 😓

A. KAEYA — 凯亚

resident boob window man.™

kaeya can’t help but relish in the eyes of people who pass him by to just simply ogle at his chest area; because let’s be honest, no body is looking at that red shirt of his. so when he heard the phrase, “can i sleep on your chest” escape from his boyfriend’s lips, it didn’t come as shock or surprise but more so a warranted compliment.

who was he to deny you? if he allows dozens to have a subtle peek at his gorgeous, tanned skin, why would he not give you a privilege that was beyond that. “how about sleeping on my bare chest? after all, isn’t heat better shared when directly skin to skin?” of course, such alluring words were written using the truth for the sake of obscenities.

and yet, when you finally burrow your face into his chest, arms snuggled safely around his waist as you hummed softly, kaeya was sure his heart would leap out of its ribcage. god, he was so lucky no one was here to embarrass him further because the image of the ever elusive, mysterious and slightly flirtatious calvary captain turning into a silly puddle at just the littlest bit of affection would be etched into history’s memory to make use of as blackmail material.

“your heartbeat is really loud,” you teased, a subtle smirk tilting your mouth as you felt his breath hitch at your sudden call out. he was hoping you couldn’t hear that incessant hammering, but since you’re so close, he might as well let you savour that sound for a little longer while he’s all yours.

A. ITTO — 荒泷一斗

“itto!”

“[name]!”

“can i sleep on your chest?”

pausing the excited chant and the slight ritual between you two to randomly call out each others names, itto stumbles and stutters in embarrassment, “i—! well, uhm, yeah! sure, hell yeah! ‘course you’d wanna, after all y’know we’re dudebros uhm, boyfriends, yeah!” it would be cuter if he did less dignity saving and a little more holding but nonetheless, this is what you signed up for when asking this tall hunk of mess to go out with you.

fortunately, neither of you would have it any other way.

getting fully comfortable in bed, it’s like you sink into itto perfectly, your body falling limp and heavy as your head cradles itself between his tattooed chest. if you didn’t feel so absolutely drowsy from the amount of heat exuding from his body, you were certain your hands may have wandered to squish them for the fun of it. yet, you refrained.

not like itto would’ve noticed such wanderings regardless, he was too busy fighting hyperventilation and this nagging cuteness aggression that threatened to manifest itself in him squeezing you painfully within the grip he had on your smaller frame.

WRIOTHESLEY — 莱欧斯利

“wrio…” you whine, face nuzzling into the nape of his neck and arms sliding along his waist to pull him flush against you.

“what is it, mon beau?” he can’t help but chuckle at the way your hands sneakily traveled along his abdomen and up to cup his chest, squeezing occasionally per routine after wriothesley came out the shower all wet and enticing, those droplets dribbling down his abs just simply begging to be swiped clean (either by your tongue or a towel, but both of you knew which one wriothesley would prefer).

“can i sleep on your chest, please? had a shitty day.”

wriothesley smiles smugly, the question rather warranted given how touchy you were being with him. “you’ve been getting all demanding lately, you know that?” settling himself within the covers of your shared abode, wriothesley promptly propped his head up atop fluffed up pillows before tapping on his chest. “come here.”

watching as you immediately snuggled yourself within his tender embrace, face nuzzled between his tits as if they were gold itself, wriothesley latched onto you with an affectionate stare, hands rubbing at your back to help soothe you. “my boyfriend’s so clingy these days,” he chuckles, giving you a gentle squeeze despite clearly having the strength to grip you tighter.

“should i just connect us with handcuffs at this point?” he suggested, but honestly if you asked, he’d do it without hesitation.

AL HAITHAM — 艾尔海森

“hey, can i sleep on your chest?”

alhaitham promptly shuts his book at your request, eyes gradually meeting yours like some sort of lizard. “but i’m a man.”

“yeah so am i, what’s your point?” your lips puckered into a firm pout, a hand on your hips as if you were absolutely bewildered that he even dared to deny you in such a subtle way despite you asking so nicely instead of snuggling yourself between his manboobs shamelessly.

“my point is,” alhaitham sat up from the couch, those muscular arms that you were certain were littered with your bite marks a few days ago laced over his chest as if to reprimand you for your ignorance, “i��m a man, it wouldn’t be comfortable for you because my breast tissue is smaller than that of a woman.”

“well, can i?” a small stretch of silence ensued for a while before alhaitham gave up trying to reason with you and merely propped up his pillow, rolling his eyes at the way you wasted no time in snuggling yourself against him. face of course nuzzling against his chest restlessly. he might not admit it to you, but you certainly weren’t blind to big boobs when you saw them.

there was a whole curve. you could calculate the circumference of those things if he asked — and honestly? that within itself wouldn’t be beyond him. alhaitham found himself enjoying this more than he thought he would. his hand carded within your messy bed-hair as the other took its time to soothe your back.

if such a dumb request is enough to make you happy, he doesn’t mind fulfilling it.

YELAN — 夜兰

“i’m not used to being caught off guard,” yelan coughs into her hand, what seemed to be both a look of surprise and smugness distorting her usually calm facade.

“would you like to bet on my answer to that question?” she tilted her head to the side to entice you, her finger luring you close with a simple movement you couldn’t help but be drawn closer to almost instantaneously.

“well, can i?” you ask innocently, a bambi look to you that yelan would normally tease, but right now she wanted to devour completely. she grins, pearly whites showing as she pat her lap for you to cradle yourself in.

“i was thinking of taking an afternoon nap anyways, i don’t see any harm in you joining me.” and of course, you wasted absolutely no time in jumping within her embrace, those hands that normally held poker chips and cards or the neck’s of egregious men now holding you with an almost surreal gentleness.

“atta girl.” yelan giggled as you nuzzled yourself snuggly against her chest, those lashes of your fluttering against your cheek as sleep seemingly lulled you in a mere instant. where you keeping awake just for her to hold you? how sweet.

YAE MIKO — 八重神子

“have you been obsessively reading those sapphic novels of yours again, [name]?”

“nuh-uh…”

“don’t lie to me dearest, i can read you with a mere glance.” yae miko flutters some cherry blossoms that clung onto her attire with a mere wash of her hand, prepping herself for the long yet worthwhile cuddle session ahead that she’s grown more than accustomed to each time you presented yourself with your hands clasped behind your back so innocently like that.

“lay down then darling, you have all my attention.” she says after a minute, and of course you obey without any protest. you snuggle yourself into her comforting warmth, her arms immediately enveloping you as you lay down against her. yae miko proceeds to kiss repeatedly all over your head while humming a soft tune that sounded suspiciously familiar to you.

it was the same song that gently breezed in the background of your first kiss during a festival, when the sunset deep the sky in a beautiful array of red and orange hues.

seems like you weren’t the only one to have been obsessively reading sapphic novels lately.

CLORINDE — 克洛琳德

“clorinde…~ can i sleep on you chest please?”

“…don’t you have your own? i don’t quite understand your fascination.”

“i want to be able to hear you heartbeat when i wake up.” ah, well you can’t just say such swoon-worthy words and then expect her to not completely drop everything and coddle you. a blush smothered her cheeks in the most cosiest of hues as she fumbled over in her effort to figure out what reply she could possibly conjure up.

it took a few moments before the words finally reached her lips but the response that fell out was no less eloquent than the one that followed, which was to laugh. “i…why not? just don’t get too attached, i have to leave in the early morning.” with that said she pulled the covers back and slid into the bed next to you, who had taken up residence in the space between the bed’s headboard and the wall, leaving enough room for both of you to comfortably fit.

clorinde wrapped an arm around your waist to pull you flush against her side while she tucked herself under your chin, effectively shielding you from all harm. her breathing evened out gradually until she seemed to have drifted off, lulling you into complete slumber. you were sure you wouldn’t even notice if she hadn't been holding you tight to her chest.

ARLECCHINO — 阿蕾奇诺

“you’ve become bolder, haven’t you my dumb bunny?”

the luxury of comfort was the last thing arlecchino obtained within her livelihood. she didn’t need it, nor did he want to have it. she would be content with living in the forest and sharing it’s abundant wildlife with fellow rabbits or whatever other small animal that came to feed on it. they could do what they wanted and it wouldn't bother that unnerving stoicism of hers.

yet such a simple, minute, even pure, question of yours? it somehow rattled something within her like a predatory snake unleashing it’s coil on its prey in sight for a bigger bite.

“since you’re so desperate for sleep, suppose i’ll have to indulge you.” she sighed heavily despite her tone holding no mingle of exhaustion apart from the permanent eyebags drooping beneath her lids.

like a berry unknowingly rolling into the reclining jaws of a centuries starved bear that’s drooling per conditioning, you comfortably settle right next to her heartbeat, those black nails sending shivers down your spine in electric shocks of warning as she spookily tugs them down your back.

her words always seem so elusive, so teasingly endearing they hardly feel sincere — almost as if sweetened words that spill from her lips come as easily as the breath from her frigid body. one thing that couldn’t lie, most unfortunately to arlecchin’s interest, was her heart.

the way it beat so clearly and loudly against your ear, it was hard not to giggle. of course, the ever perceptive arlecchino mumbled something incoherent about your perceived insolence and shoved your face right between her breasts to stop you from peeking directly into her heart. despite you clearly being in it already.

©STARYUEE do not copy, steal or repost ♡ ᴜsᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ɪʜᴇᴀʀᴛɢᴀɴʏᴜ

[charcoalsdestiny]

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH EVERYONE!

this drawing may have taken all month, but its finally here!

These guys are all from my ROTTMNT AU, "Where There Is Hamato" (WTIH)

tumblr killed the quality, so closeups and headcanon breakdowns are under the cut! (though. my closeups are also a bit rough, tumblr hated how much this image was i guess.) please click for full saturation of colors!

Some of this may be subject to change in the future as i work on this AU

in order left from right (approximately):

Sunita - Pansexual Demigirl (She/They)

April - Lesbian, Trans woman (She/Her)

Casey Junior (CJ) - Abrosexual (He/They)

El (future Raphael) - unlabeled sexuality (likes women) Trans woman. (She/Her)

Cass (future Cassandra/Casey) - Lesbian (She/Her)

Zero - bisexual, nonbinary/genderqueer. (He/She/They)

Donnie - Bisexual, Possibly demiromantic and nonbinary. (He/they)

Casey - Lesbian (She/Her)

Raph - Bigender (He/She) possibly pansexual.

Mikey - Aromantic, Asexual, Genderfluid. (Pronouns Change and Include Neopronouns)

Angie (Future Michaelangelo) - AroAce, genderqueer. (Any pronouns.)

Leo - Gay Trans man (He/him)

Artemisia - Lesbian. (She/her?)

Future Leonardo (nickname undecided) - Gay trans man. (He/Him)

Future Zero (no nickname yet.) - Bisexual, Genderqueer/Nonbinary. (They/He/She.)

Giovanni - doesn't know his sexuality, but he doesn't think he's cishet... (He/Him)

Don (Future Donatello) - Bisexual. might have more going on but doesnt care right now. (He/Him.)

Future April (nickname undecided) - Lesbian, Trans woman. (She/her)

Future Sunita (Suni?) - Queer, doesn't think about it much anymore. (they/she)

Baron Draxum - Gay, Trans man. (He/Him)

Splinter - Bisexual (He/Him)

Neither Version of S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. have a sexuality or gender identity because i honestly don't know what id give them?

Some of these may change eventually but. here's my guys!

BONUS! Relationship breakdown!

Sunita and April are dating.

El and Cass are married. (And CJ's parents)

Zero and Donnie are dating.

Raph and Casey are dating.

Zero and Don are married. (and Artemisia & Giovanni's parents)

Splinter and Draxum are... something.

Future April and Suni are married as well.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

This is a slight rant, I guess?

I'm a not-always-GNC transmasc.

And let me tell you. People have a weird reaction to whatever I present as, unless it's extremely androgynous with slight fem leaning so I am "visibly queer"... Because then they know exactly what box to put me in.

I'm more masculine? "What? What's wrong with femininity? Do you hate yourself?" Or "Ugh, finally! Thought you'd never dress like that! Finally you look like a man" or "why is it always hoodies/flannels/button ups?"

I'm more feminine? "What? What's wrong with masculinity? Do you hate yourself?" And "you can't dress like that, you are supposed to be a man. I can't call you the right pronouns if you dress like that... How will people know?"

People, in short, see me as a butch lesbian, but never truly accept my masculinity in that presentation due to my slightly more feminine body. But also only sees me as a twink gay man*, until I talk. Then I'm slotted into the first option. Is my experience.

But how I see it myself? I'm both. Simulationasly. And also neither. And a third thing sometimes even.

*I am not comfortable with people calling me a twink without knowing them well, yet people do. And doesn't always stop when I say I like women???

People just need to learn to let people vibe with their gender, and leave it be.

[remuslupinschocolat3]

My stardew valley headcanons because no one can stop me!!!!!!!

Part one

In alphabetical order

Abigail:

💎Bisexual

💎she/they

💎Hates children

💎In a Polycule with Sam and Sebastian

💎Shares a braincell with Sam

💎smoked weed once with Sebastian and threw up afterwards

💎has random beef with Haley that Haley isn't aware of

💎gets piercings just to spite her dad

💎was only good in English class in highschool

💎regrets being on 2020 alt tiktok

💎 secretly vandalizes their father's yoba shrine (he thinks it's Sebastian doing it)

💎their gay awakening was Keira Knightley in Pirates of the Caribbean (she just like me fr)

Alex

🏈the definition of comphet

🏈himbo

🏈gay man/lesbian alliance with Haley

🏈his first crush was the team captain of an Opponent's school gridball team

🏈 doesn't drink alcohol because he's scared to be like his father

🏈he had a pathetic crush on Elliot when Elliot first moved to the valley

🏈has a bottle of the perfume his mother used to wear and sprays it on his pillow when he's sad

🏈used to go to a gym in Zu City but stopped after a boy there asked him out

🏈dated Haley in highschool for half a year until both of them came out to the other in hopes to let the other down gently

Caroline

🍃not a single thought behind those eyes

🍃fell out of love with Pierre ten years ago

🍃grows marijuana plants in her tea house (have you seen her two heart event?)

🍃dyed her hair green once when she was 15 and never tried a different color again

🍃has a few secret tattoos

🍃the necklace she wears is a gift by Rasmodios

🍃best friends with Jodi and Robin

🍃loves to gossip, she knows everyone's business

🍃almost became an almond mom but stopped before it could affect Abigail in the long run

🍃she has no enemies, everyone loves her but hates her husband

Clint (it's red cus he's a red flag)

🔨4chan user

🔨incel

🔨used to tell his mom to make him a sandwich

🔨called his parents by their first names

🔨knows the Irish dance (I don't know what it's called lmao)

🔨can't have friendships with women because he always thinks they fall in love with him

🔨hasn't exercised since he finished highschool

🔨stalks Emily (that's canon) (stay away from her)

🔨can you tell I hate him yet?

Demetrius

🧪is the reason his first marriage failed

🧪controlling and possessive (Maru's two heart event)

🧪so boring

🧪thinks missionary is the only way to have sex

🧪I know people headcanon him as autistic but I think he's just petty

🧪 arrogant, thinks he's smarter than everyone else because he knows science

🧪was actually an okay step father to Sebastian until Maru was born

🧪him and Robin are not compatible but neither of them want to go through a second divorce

Elliot

🦀 gay and proud

🦀in his mid thirties

🦀 can't swim

🦀 used to write star trek fanfiction as a teenager on fanfiction.net

🦀so fucking tall

🦀went through three separate gender identity crisis before realizing that he just isn't comfortable expressing himself as a stereotypical manly man

🦀demi romantic

🦀gay man/lesbian alliance with Leah

🦀sees Leah as the little sister he never had

🦀 isn't really broke, he's a trustfund baby who wanted to experience what it's like to be a starving artist (thinks it makes his art more valid)

🦀Leah beat him up when she found out

🦀 obsessed with his hair (I'm so jealous of his luscious curls 😭😭😭)

🦀so dramatic (used to be a theater kid for sure)

Emily

🔮the character I headcanon as autistic

🔮 pansexual and asexual

🔮they/she, trans

🔮dating Sandy

🔮knows everyone's zodiac signs

🔮names her plants

🔮gets the zoomies after work (at night)

🔮Haley hates it

🔮Haley's biggest supporter

🔮vegan

🔮thinks of Clint as a genuine friend (save yourself girly pop)

🔮calls Sandy the weirdest nick names "hello my cuddle bear" "it's been too long since we last saw each other my strawberry jam"

🔮suckles on Pennies (she just like me fr)

🔮reads books about crystals for hours on end, Haley has to take the book away from her and drag her to bed sometimes

🔮has befriended the junimos

🔮Sandy sells the clothes she makes

🔮hates the taste of strawberry in candy and stuff

🔮would vape if vapes existed in stardew valley but not in a I'm a thirteen year old boy way but in a I like the taste and I enjoy making smoke rings kinda way

🔮you can't tell me that she's not a pothead

🔮knows Haley is a lesbian years before her sister figures it out

🔮besties with Shane (refuses to sell him alcohol at the Stardrop saloon)

🔮gets extremely flustered around people she deems as attractive

🔮is really bad at doing her own makeup (Sandy or Haley do it for her)

🔮has a huge tattoo that covers almost her entire back

🔮her energy is contagious

🔮high School was very hard for her but college was the best time of her life

🔮wants to buzz her hair so bad but has enough restrain to keep herself from doing so

🔮loves to make cocktails (she makes Gus try them and he always loves them and puts them on his menu)

🔮makes Shane, Sandy and Haley cosplay with her (none of them want to but they can't say no when Emily looks at them with that wide eyed grin of hers)

🔮unleashed a group of rats in JoJa mart because Shane complained once (1 time) about his working conditions, the store closed for two months

🔮can you tell how much I love Emily?

[sickofthistoxicshit]

To be honest the way part of the fandom has treated this Tommy character as a god makes me dislike him more. Unfortunately the Buck bi arc was tainted for me because it all feels force. Also what doesn't help is that Eddie was to much involved in that storyline.

The way people are acting like it's a perfect relationship and yet we barely saw them together feels just weird.

Also I don't like how some literally push Eddie away for this new white man.

This is Taylor Kelly all over again. The sad part is that the season is short and people wAnt to to spend their time giving more to the new guy.

I hope him and Marisol are gone, but I'm afraid. These two characters took the joy out of the Buck and Eddie storyline for me.

The fandom, I think, in this case, is definitely the problem here,

Lou is completely unassuming and enjoying the process and being a buddie shipper just like us - if one actually bothers to read the interviews and not just pick and choose what to talk about.

That is what makes me like Lou.

The fandom has somehow glorified Tommy's character after a couple of episodes and yeah it rubs the wrong way, because, what about the story we had so far?

Is season 7 a reset to 911? and everything that came before that doesn't count? Why not just make it 911 abc pilot then?

I don't think that's the case, but I think the last minute switch between Buck and Eddie kind of ruined it for the Tim because, yes, in a way it feels forced and out of left field.

Supposed that Buck was indeed vying for Tommy's attention, why do it like that? and why involve Eddie in the first place?

I have a lot of questions and my main problem here is not that Buck is experimenting with Tommy, it's the way they practically propelled this ship off the cliff into a dangerous spin, they went from zero to 200 in a second. - That is not how you build a relationship.

You don't try to figure out what you want, mess up the first date, then invite said date to an apology coffee and then invite him to family wedding on the way. It just doesn't work that way.

I may be straight, but I have gay and bi and lesbian friends, neither one of them has ever brought a second or even a third date to so much as a friends get together before they were sure that this is something that would last, before they brought the intended victim to be judged by friends and family.

And people who talk about Tommy as being established in the 118 family, that is not true. He has a connection with Chimney in that that he owes him his life and an acquaintance with Hen, who is clearly not very fond of him, because of obvious past she had with him and their old house before Bobby came into the picture. - Remember - Chimney was her ONLY lifeline in that house.

Tommy was not a liked character before.

Arguably Buck had more history with Taylor than he did with Tommy (which is none at all) - But Taylor is a strong opinionated and often self-serving woman (not unlike Buck mind you), emphasis on woman. - That is the only reason she never stood a chance. Because the writers could have made her and Buck the greatest love story this show has seen, but they continuously managed to ruin any fondness for any female LI to ever grace that set.

And this season is short, to bring in a new LI kinda defeats the purpose of re-establishing the team and this show, because it does feel the same as any of Buck's old relationships that were being pushed for the benefit of 'god forbid Buck actually learns how to be alone and healthy and happy' - the only thing that changed in Buck this season is his sexuality and nothing else, and that vexes me.

My problem is not with Tommy, it's the perpetuation of 'poor baby Buck' society. - I love Oliver and I love Buck - I am tired of the ever repeating pattern of forgiveness for his self serving ways without any accountability that we keep seeing.

I don't think Buck's or even Eddie's firsts or you know what? even seconds should be each other, I am more than happy to make this journey with them, but let it be a marathon not a sprint to the finish line - they knew they would get renewed for another season, they could have written and built it better than what we got - because the moment they switched gears after the second episode, the story became written in the same messy last minute way both S4 and most of S5 were written.

There is no grand plan, at this point they are merely winging it and see where the wind takes them. - And that is idiotic, they had SO MUCH TIME to make this a well written story with the strike and long break after that, to write as they film is lazy and stupid and mostly childish.

And yes this is Taylor all over again, not in that they are the same type of people, but that Buck is jumping head first into a relationship without actually knowing how he got there. - Bobby said that himself - and it is the same, because who in their right mind invite a second (kinda) date to a family event? Like dude have you ever dated before? Do you how this works?

It is a LOT of pressure and not even for Buck himself - because he brought this on himself - but rather for Tommy (aka the intended victim) to be first introduced to the family after a couple of dates when he himself has no idea where he and Buck are standing.

Marisol, has indeed sucked the joy out of the Eddie's story, I don't get why do either of the boys had to be in a relationship starting this season to begin with. Like, she is literally a handbag, the token hetero symbol, so to speak, what she is doing there? is beyond me.

The catholic guilt of her being a nun is bullshit, and as Bobby said himself, Eddie has no problem committing to certain people/things. She serves no purpose this season other than a seat warmer/ glorified babysitter since Buck is otherwise engaged.

They could have gone for Eddie finding his way in the department, Eddie dealing with his mommy issues, Eddie trying to figure out what and who he wants in his life, Eddie trying to navigate Chris' terrible teenage years.

They could have explored the fact that a guy going with his supposed gf/wife in the golf course checking Eddie's hot ass (6X17) - Oh wait, they were going to... the ground for Eddie's coming out was all laid out and they took a sharp turn to left field in the second episode of S7 and made it all about Buck again, because the Natalia actress couldn't come?? what kind of a weak ass reason is that?

And yes, the cliche of receiving the odd white man out (who played a controversial role in early seasons) rather than the regular casted poc male or the guest starring woman, for that matter, better is all kind of f-ed up, but no one would talk about that, of course. 👀

Anyway, I am hoping that whatever is coming next will be worthy of our time and attention because so far we got about more of the same as far as Buck and Eddie are concerned - except that Buck has just broaden his variety and has a bigger pallet of mate choosing at his disposal.

I have two very close bi friends, so I know how their minds work, because God knows they share with me more than I ever wanted to know lol. And one of them is watching 911 with me and she is happy for the rep as well, but unhappy with how it was developed too.

At the moment, I have decided to put any Buck and Eddie topics aside and just want to get the LONG AWAITED Madney wedding, if anyone deserve a happy ending, it's them. ❤️

[adarkrainbow]

A brief talk about Fables and LGBT

When it comes to works dealing with oe re-creating fairy tales, I always like to take a look at any possible LGBT representation. After all, fairytales became such a monolithic symbol of a heterosexual world with no place for queer people that taking a look at non "orthodox" orientations is always one of the easiest but also deepest subversions of the genre. (There's a whole thing to say about the very strong queerness of literary fairytales from madame de Murat and the knight of Mailly to Andersen and Oscar Wilde, but we'll keep this for later - let us focus on the "popular opinion" and "random Joe or Joane" knowledge that "fairytales are for heteros only").

As such, I had to take a look at the LGBT representations in the comic book "Fables". Being one of the big names and great example of fairytale media, building an entire franchise on reinventing fairytales into a modern fantasy and marking the first American entries into the urban-fantasy fairytale world... And it is very interesting because in recent years "Fables" has come under heavy criticism precisely because of a lack of LGBT representation. You have this numerous series, that spawned numerous spin-offs, and co-existed with other great Vertigo titles filled with queerness (Neil Gaiman's Sandman to take an example)... And yet all people remember of it are "heteros everywhere". Is it true? Is Fables truly as queer-unfriendly as we recall?

This post originally began last year as a catalogue of all the queer characters in Fables... But I stopped halfway, realizing I was exhausting myself by just dissecting every little part of the comic. Not that I do not enjoy it - but I have better things to do on my free time. So instead of making a full and exhaustive list of every mention of non-hetero things, I will rather make some broad and general observations based on my knowledge and reading of this franchise.

If we look at the main series, we can only confirm this popular opinion: homosexual characters are neither primary nor secondary - they are tertiary at most. The only character I remember to have been truly confirmed as homosexual was Moss Waterhouse from "Jack Be Nimble". A very cool character - an intelligent, ambitious, charismatic, slightly morally ambiguous Black, gay and Jewish man who knows he is every minority the old world hates and doesn't hesitate to use it as a weapon, and ultimately gets the fame, the wealth and the power. A very cool character... that lasts a few issues and disappears completely. Beyond that... What do we have? Rose-Red says she had "experiences" with women before - but it is a detail thrown hastily in a dialogue of "Animal Farm", and it is unclear if she is truly bisexual, simply "experimented" in her past, or purposefully had lesbian relationships in her conscious and intense effort to break all the social taboos of the Fables community... I did notice a hairdresser that seems to be a "gay hairdresser" stereotype in "The Sons of the Empire", but after that, the series is a desert.

So, while Bill Willingham recognizes gay people exist, he clearly doesn't want to focus on them or talk about gayness in his plots. In fact, he seems to have been thinking more about them in the beginning of his comic (all the mentions above are from the first third or so of the series), before completely focusing on something else. There is not a refusal of depicting homosexuals, no, there is simply no desire to focus on them or push them forward or tell stories about them (except for Moss Waterhouse, who is a focus-character and one of the main characters of the Jack Be Nimble arc - but a tertiary character in Fables as a whole). [Note: I am only looking at here through the lense of inside the comic, but it doesn't help that Willingham is in real-life an openly Christian and old-fashioned author with some... specific ideas that do not really fit with modern sensibilities, resulting in some of the series' primary controversies, like the handling of abortion.]

HOWEVER! To say Fables is not a gay comic FRANCHISE would be a big mistake. Because while the main series is a desert with one oasis, the spin-offs are BURSTING with gay characters! Well, it isn't a Pride Parade still, but we have prominent, important, front-stage homosexual characters, and gay romances are part of the plots and character growths!

"Fairest" is probably the most gay of all the spin-offs : in "The Hidden Kingdom", Rapunzel is confirmed to be bisexual and a key part of the plot is her romance with a female kitsune. In "The Return of the Maharaja" Prince Charming is revealed to be bisexual and Nathoo (of The Jungle Book) to be gay. And in "Clamour for Glamour" Mary is in an homosexual relationship too... Not only are homosexual relationships openly depicted and primary characters confirmed as queer, but the topic of accepting these relationships is also heavily talked about - from Rapunzel facing the rejecting of a feudal Japan moral system, to Nathoo being afraid of his own feelings and Charming having to explain to him they are normal. What is especially interesting about "Fairest" is that the series seems to go at counter-flow against the main series. For example, Prince Charming is confirmed to be bisexual and to have loved at least a man before... But if I recall well, in the beginning of "Fables" Charming made clear he was NOT into guys, only girls. Another case could be brought up - Crispin, whose "gay-coding" was massively amplified in "Of Men and Mice" - in fact, it is very obviously and strongly suggested by the story that Crispin and the Huntsman are more than friends, given how the Huntsman rushes by his side and refuses to leave his hospital bed after the explosion... It is not openly said, leading to Wikipedia articles to go with the usual routine of "They're just good friends", but the way it is framed and having this "very strong same-sex devotional friendship" sandwiched between openly gay romances, it all VERY strongly implies some homoromantic feelings...

Another spin-off that deserves a good place on this list, but that is not well known (because A- it is the last of the spin-offs and B- it got cancelled due to low sales) is "Everafter", which explicitely confirms that Connor Wolf, one of the children of Snow and Bigsby, is not just homosexual, not just bisexual, but PANSEXUAL thanks to his extensive shapeshifting abilities allowing him to turn into all kinds of sexes, genders and species. And this isn't just told to us by dialogue, but also explicitely proven and shown by having Connor enter an homosexual relationship with one of his male colleagues, Tom Swift (from the Tom Swift novels).

So, what made this "queer boom" in the spin-offs? Was it because Willingham was less present, if not completely absent, allowing other voices to write and speak? Was it because it was "side-stories" that could be split from the "main stuff", and thus there could be more experiments? Was it because these series were made and written in the late 2000s and early 2010s rather than the late 90s, and so these subjcts were more on people's minds? Probably a mix of all that - after all, one thing well known is that the spin-offs were places of free experiments and competitive alternatives, resulting in contradicting plotlines that made the series semi-canons compared to Willingham's main continuity (see the dual Sleeping Beauty origin backstory).

The Fables franchise is not "anti-gay", far from it - I do hold the idea that fairytales are an inherently queer genre and so every work dealing with them for too long ends up showing queer themes at one point or another - even though it is true that the Fables SERIES is very, if not almost exclusively, heterosexual-driven. But the very open and normalized homosexuality, bisexuality and pansexuality of the spin-offs help balance this in the scope of a franchise.

Now, you might say: "Hey, you spoke of queerness at the beginning of your post, but now you're all rambling about sexualities! Where's the transgenders at?". And believe me, it was deliberate! Here is the thing - when it comes to trans folks, Fables becomes a whole other lot of complex topic. I do not know what Willingham's personal opinions of trans people are, and it doesn't really matter here because am looking at the actual created work as it can be received from someone with no knowledge of the author. Here's the thing: while the Fables main series is a desert of gayness, it develops a very strong transgender esotericism through focus on specific fairytale topics, reversal of fairytale tropes, and discussion of motifs that truly work as gender-breaking occultism. This is why anyone who reads some arcs of the main series can easily believe Willingham is trans-friendly (again I don't know if he actually IS, and from the rumors I vaguely heard, he might not be fully okay with trans people, but his work speaks a different language). If Willingham truly is against trans people, than this proves my point above: anyone dealing too much or for too long with fairytales in their work will grow queer-messages and queer-themes, that they want it or not.

On one side, you have numerous shapeshifters in this story who explicitely keep altering and changing their appearances and identities, which brings forward questions of "living into two worlds" (like the cubs, halfway between humans and wolves) or having to choose one identity other another. When this gets mingled with inhuman, cosmic entities and personified natural powers this results to some very interesting gender issues - most famous being the North Wind case. When there is talks of the North Wind getting an heir among his grandchildren, there is a whole discussion about how the North Wind will always be King of the North and of Winter... even if the new North Wind is a girl. Which, as the North Wind attendants say, lets the heir choose if they want to become male to match the title, or stay female while being called "King" - because ultimately the North Wind, being a seasonal and weather power, is above and beyond these gender considerations, and mostly uses them as attributes and titles more than anything of real substance.

On the other side, the topic of names is truly fascinating... Fables being iconic characters of popular stories, feeding off their fame and celebrity to gain power, means that they are deeply attached to their names, that their names are their essence and their being, and that these same names will keep haunting them. And yet... in the second half of the comic, we have numerous characters changing their names. Changes that not only mark deep personal growths and dvelopments, but also are accepted by others and change the perceptions of who the character is. When Flycatcher stops being a low janitor in deny, and decides to become a brave, powerful, messianic king, he returns to his original name of "Ambrose". Similarly, Frau Totenkinder when returning to her true self, abandoning the nicknames and disguises, gains a new identity so that the other Fables do not recognize her and mistake her for another person. And of course, there is how Stinky - who got a name he hated, not by choice - becomes Brock Blueheart, though this is here meant to be more of a religious allegory than anything else. But still - for anyone aware of his transgenderism works, to see this importance and focus on the power of names, of names as defining an identity, and of the changing of names to change who you are... It is hard not to see some trans motifs in the second part of the Fables comics.

But even more relevant, even more obvious, even more trans-coded, was the story of Rodney and June. This arc was the definitive proof that no matter what Willingham's personal opinions might be, Fables was a trans-friendly comic, even if maybe against the author's own intentions, or by accident. [Or again, purposefully if Willingham turns out to be cool with transgenders people, I don't know the guy]. Rodney and June, wood-soldiers, born out of trees, made of wood, part of an entire elite nation and civilization of wooden people... Are fascinated by people of flesh, dream of becoming flesh people, even if others see them as weird freaks and advise them to "keep all this hidden" not to compromise their reputation ; and their story is fully developed and fleshed out (no pun intended) from awkward and failed attempts at imitating and understanding the behavior of flesh-people (things like eating or kissing), to them openly and bravely undergoing a quest to demand that their creator grants their wish of becoming people of flesh, and be recognized as such by the empire they live in... When you read this story, it seems massively obvious that this is a barely-veiled plot for anyone dealing with identity issues and trying to change who they currently are to be true to who they want to be - and more importantly who they feel they have to be. You can't do more trans than that - from the whole "don't tell, keep it hidden" behavior of the awkward friends around you to the secret experiments and roleplayings in the privacy of the bedroom...

In conclusion: Next time someone says Fables is homophobic, point out to them that the comics themselves are not. The main series might not have prominent gay stories or characters, but it has some very strong transgender motifs and characters (accidental or not, they're here, they're queer and people have to deal with it) ; while the spin-offs are bursting with unashamed gay romances and explicit lesbian sex. It is definitively not the greatest franchise when it comes to gay representation, but it cannot be said it isn't a queer comic in its whole.

[ask-the-parabalis-gang]

Hiii!!! I'm the mod of @the-demonic-people and I just want to say that your blog is so cool! I just wanna know, what's the plot of the blog and the story? I haven't properly checked the entire thing yet. Anyways, hope u have a nice day ^^

THANK YOU SO MUCH OH MY GOODNESS

I should probably write down the plot, all I’ve done was give cryptic hints at it because I’m stuck in the purgatory of wanting to infodump everything but not wanting to spoil anything.

TWs: Implied forced relationship, manipulation, death (lots of it), cults and religious imagery, mentions of parental and domestic abuse, phobias, mental and physical disorders

So buckle up, ladies, gentlemen, neithers, boths, and in-betweens, for I present:

The Plot (TM)

It’s Patchy Skelter’s 18th birthday!!! This is wonderful and amazing cuz she has an incredibly dangerous disorder that makes her unable to feel pain. She wasn’t supposed to live this long, but she did!! Yippee for her!!

Clay is her bestiewestie. They get bullied by Poly, who is a dick. However, it’s not about that right now. Patchy has a birthday. Their life is wonderful. They go to a cool little venue in a restaurant/bar and play music with their band. Patchy is there. All is well in the world.

Patchy’s two father figures are there too — Orgon and Cal. They used to be gay. But they currently are gay?? Wowzers they’re working things out probably!! Patchy ships them because we love old man yaoi (is it still considered old man yaoi if they’re in their 40s). People also ship Patchy and Pith, the singer in Clay’s band, because we also love lesbians here.

Clay third wheels both Orgon and Cal as well as Patchy and Pith. They are sad about this.

Woah why is Orgon looking at Clay and Pith in a sussy way. It’s like he knows something strange but that couldn’t be. Eh it’s probably nothing. He hasn’t exactly been the same since a traumatizing car accident that happened two years ago on December 22, 2004.

Woah this is being described in detail!! Is it a major plot point???? (yes)

The next day, Clay sees Poly beat up. Insert concern because Poly’s mum is a notorious douchebag. Poly beats Clay up for caring about him, as one does.

Clay, still worried about Poly because they’re a good person, follows him home. Poly does a bit of a shouty shouty and it’s somewhat angsty. Suddenly Clay gets stabbed. By a needle. With a sedative. Held by Orgon.

Poly, appropriately, is like ‘what in the fuck I hated them but I didn’t want this to happen???’ So they try to call Pith (who they formerly had a shitty relationship with). She doesn’t answer. They go to Patchy who accuses them of attacking Clay and Pith. For once Poly had done nothing, and he leaves sadly.

Meanwhile Clay wakes up in a basement. So does Pith!!!! This is frightening. Pith undergoes panic attack so Clay tries to comfort her. Wait why the fuck is their hand glowing. Could this be MAGIC???? It’s like they’re SIPHONING IT FROM PITH??? WHAT???? Orgon looks pleased with himself. What is he plotting oh my stars.

Meanwhile, Patchy’s stressed over this. She calls up her father figures because Pith’s not answering and she’s really worried. Cal acts relatively normal. Orgon does not. Patchy begins to suspect something but it couldn’t be!! It’s not like her father figures were bad, right????

SUDDENLY PITH PICKS UP. Thank god. She sounds really traumatized so Patchy invites her over. They bond over Patchy’s love of crafts and talk about Poly. It’s revealed that Poly has NPD and has severe issues which is why he acts the way he does. He also worsened Pith’s schizophrenia during their relationship and ended up making her not take her medication anymore.

Pith wants to stay over but hOLY SHIT THERE’S ONLY ONE BED. The two sleep in it. It’s wholesome as fuck. Until Pith gets a nightmare. During the comfort, she opens up to Patchy about the main route of her problems — The Event (TM).

The Event (TM) reveals that Pith used to be a ghost hunter who was fascinated by the paranormal. She was walking through the woods when she heard a strange crash. Then she continued forward and stumbled upon a CULT??? In the sleepy town of Parabalis???? More likely than you think :D

Guess when this Event (TM) took place!!! (Hint: it’s December 22, 2004, aka the same date Orgon had his car accident.) Patchy freaks out at the same-date thing. Shit’s going down.

Clay’s still trapped in Orgon’s basement, not doing so good. They’re contemplating the existence of magic and wonder what the fuck they have. And Pith has had to deal with it this whole time??? No wonder she’s traumatized

Suddenly they hear a conversation from upstairs!! Wait Orgon’s actually SPEAKING??? He sounds like he’s being forced to. Weird. Wait, is that other voice Cal, Patchy’s other father figure :0 They sound gay but not in a good way. A suspicious meeting that Orgon has to go to is mentioned and cults are also mentioned and Clay’s like WTF. This is news to them. Holy shit this is a lot to take in.

More not-so-good-or-consensual gayness happens and then Orgon returns and is visibly Not Well. Clay tries to talk to him about Cal and then Orgon threatens him and now Clay’s frightened!!! But so is Orgon. Huh.

Orgon leaves the weapon he threatened Clay with in a place where they can somehow get it because he’s traumatized and can’t think straight. Clay escapes and when Orgon returns they beat the ever loving shit out of Orgon cuz Orgon’s lowkey a weakling. They pin him down and suddenly there’s a light in his cold dead eyes. Wait that’s snow. What the fUCK-

So it’s revealed that the magic Clay took from Pith was the ability to see into others’ memories. Time to reveal Orgon’s trauma now with this ability!!!!

Clay sees Orgon’s terrible car wreck and watches him straight-up die in a horrific way. Trauma!! Suddenly, Orgon is no longer dead!!! He wakes up incredibly frightened in the middle of a cult, run by Cal. :0

Apparently Cal has magic too — the ability to tamper with life and death and reverse either of those things. Therefore he straight-up believes he’s Jesus Christ. Lots of religious symbolism happens. This delusional man tells Orgon that he owes him his life now, and the life of Patchy because without Orgon, Patchy would be dead.

Clay pulls back to reality and is like ‘holy shit so you’re not bad, you just wanna protect yourself and Patchy from Cal. damn you could have TOLD ME INSTEAD OF BEING CREEPY ABOUT IT’. Orgon’s shit at telling people valuable information, but now we know that Clay has the ability to yoink the powers of Cal to end his reign of terror once and for all.

Anyways Clay, Patchy, and Pith all reunite and talk about what happened. Patchy is skeptical about the existence of magic so Clay uses his spooky memory powers. She sees a really wholesome memory of herself and Orgon being daughter and father and she cries. Then they team up to save Orgon with the Power of Friendship!!!

They go to where the cult is. Cal arrives late and starts talking about ‘a Judas among us’ or something. Hehe among us. Anyways he reveals how he knows about Orgon’s little experiments with the magical children. This betrayal will lead to DEATH!!! Orgon, who had been forced to go, finally expresses fear for once. Ugh I love my sopping wet cat of a man so much SORRY ANYWAYS

The gang burst in like ‘NOOOOOO’. The other cult members flee and it’s symbolic cuz everyone abandoned Jesus too. Lots of religious imagery when Cal’s around. Anyways Cal whips out a fucking gun and threatens the gang. There’s a large kerfuffle but Cal gets the upper hand and is about to kill people when suddenly he’s like ‘wait where tf are my killing powers’. Clay has them!!! They kill Cal. Everything’s good.

WAIT NO IT’S NOT PATCHY GOT SHOT LMAO. Orgon displays even MORE emotion cuz she’s the only thing he’s living for. Patchy ends up fucking dying but now Clay has the powers of Cal, so they can bring her back. Everyone has trauma now. But they’re all alive so it’s not that bad.

Then the plot dissolves into details that make it possible for me to make several sequels. Those I don’t wanna reveal for 1. spoilers and 2. I don’t have sequel details laid out. But yeah everyone gets a happy ending!!!

Or do they :D

[sunkissedliterarylightofchrist]

I saw the ask you got regarding your religion and I'm sorry that all that was said to you. It's really unfair of whoever posted it and does not reflect the fandom at all.

However, I did notice that you didn’t specifically address your views on queerness in that post. I was curious about your perspective on the topic as a Christian and how it relates to your beliefs. No hate intended, just genuinely interested.

I did see your take on transness and neopronouns which I do disagree heavily with, as somebody who doesn't use neopronouns. The world is messed up right now, and if something as simple as neopronouns brings a little bit of happiness to somebody, then who are we to care? If god really doesn't make mistakes, and god makes us in Her own image, then who are we to correct people who have lived their lives with this truth? Surely their gender identity is part of how god made them; part of gods plan. And the take of 'I will use their name so not to use their pronouns' isn't as respectful as you believe it is.

But I was hoping for your wider stance on queerness as a whole in regards to your religion. What do you think of people who are gay, lesbian, trans, nonbinary, and everything else under the queer umbrella, and how does it fit in with your Christian beliefs?

I am coming at this with pure respect; I'm just wanting to understand.

Hi! I assume you're talking about the hate ask that got left on my sideblog? If that's the case, I totally agree! ZR is a blast and I've yet to talk to someone who's really rude or hostile, except for that anon. Its a cool fandom! Probably my favorite, even though its so small! I didn't address my beliefs in that post because it did not seem relevent to the ask in question, but I am glad that you saw you could ask me over here what they really are, and that you did! Thanks for being repectful, it's a lot easier to engage in conversation with someone who is actually willing to hear what I have to say, even if they disagree, then someone who's just trying to punch me in the jaw!

So here we go.

I believe what the Bible says. The end-all and be-all authority. It is the Word of God, what God commands us to do, directly breathed out into a book that we can study to learn what His will in our lives is. It's truly remarkable! We don't have to walk through life blind and stumbling about who we are and what our place is in the world, we are told! So everything I believe about anything has its ultimate basis in Scripture.

So here is what the Bible says about homosexuality:

1 Corinthians 6:9 - “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

 Leviticus 18:22, 20:13 - You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination;  If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

Romans 1:26-27 - For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

1 Timothy 1:10 - ...the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,...

There are more. But I think you get the gist here. Homosexuality and transgenderism and even saying you don't have a gender, and a lot of what the LGBTQIA+ movement stands for, goes directly against God's design. There are two genders, man and woman. We are called to have any and all sexual relations within marrige between one man and one woman. It's black and white. That hurts what our flesh craves, that's uncomfortable, and might even feel cruel, but it is how we are created to be. Man and woman compliment each other, and are created to work together as a single unit for our entire lives. That's how God decided it would be.

But note that God isn't slam-dunking on homosexuality because He hates it extra. A lot of the condemnation against gay sexual sin is listed among a list of sins that are all equally condemned. And actually, if you count it up verse by verse, the Bible spends more time talking about men who abuse their wives (physically, mentally, sexually) and how that's wrong over being gay or trans or any of that. Straight sin is no better or worse than queer sin.

Christian culture (which, trust me, is just dumb Western culture and almost none of it is actually Christianity as it is supposed to be) goes after this especially because they hate it more and use the Bible as an excuse. Which I hope you can see is wrong on all counts and by doing that they are sinning just as much. Anger against sin should NEVER result in more sin. Ever. So if anyone has ever used religion as a means to intentionally hurt you or your queer loved ones, I truly and deeply apologize on their behalf. God sees their sin too, and He is enraged at them for disrespecting His name and treating His law with contempt and passing it off as what He wants them to do. They will face justice for their sin, same as all of us.

And it comes to neopronouns- you're basically saying that you aren't a person, or something to that effect, it depends on the person. So as for it making somone happy... I disagree with that because of what the Bible says. Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

Our feelings and emotions and flesh lie to us all the time. If you're a runner, you know that! Your body is screaming at you that this is the worst thing ever and you are going to die if you don't give up right now, but then a chase comes on and you're able to sprint at top speed for thirty seconds and go, 'Huh, I guess I was able to do that.' Our bodies and minds lie to us, all the time. That's a big thing about mental health too- there are some days that there is nothing I want to do more than pack up and leave my entire life behind without telling anyone and intentionally hurt them by this. And then once in a while there are worse days when suicidal ideation gets the better of me and I'm standing at the edge of a river not that far from my house and contemplating drowning myself.

But I don't. Because my mind and body and feelings are deceptive. And I listen to God and what He says. Because what He says is always good, beautiful, and true. And far above me and anything about me. He is strong where I am weak. And I, in my flesh, apart from Him, am weak in everything.

It's the same here. It's the same with every other sin. My feelings are weak and changeable, and my body and mind work together to decieve me into desiring things that are terrible for me. And same with every other person ever. So wanting to do something just because it feels good or makes you happy isn't a good reason for doing a lot of things. Just because being called eir/ehm would make you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. Just because getting drunk would make you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. Just because mastubating makes you happy doesn't mean its a good reason. And this comes to gay relationships too, or being trans, or no gender, or any of that. Just because it makes you feel good doesn't mean its a good reason.

Is it because God hates happiness? By all means no! Look around! God created snow to play in and alchohol to consume and sex to have and other pleasures to read or watch or hear or more, and every good thing in the universe He created and He approves! He loves beauty and fun! I bet Jesus had some really good Aramaic puns he told the disciples! We have our joy in Him and what He has done, but even beyond that joy, because He is a good and gracious God, He has given us billions of reasons to be happy! Let us rejoice in that!

The thing about restrictions on anything ever is that they all have a place and purpose, and for every single one of these we can find the basis of why straight from His word. That's why true and genuine Christians, not those who puppet the name for their own ends or misguided beliefs, study the word. How can you know how to drive if you weren't taught how? Same thing with the Bible. It's all just really one big excerice in delayed gratificaiton. Delayed gratification is the ability to resist the temptation of an immediate reward in favor of a more valuable and long-lasting reward later. So despite our flesh craving things that feel good to us, we have to deny ourselves for His sake, because that is what He has commanded us to do. And while it might be 'boring' now and we miss out on 'good' (as defined by the world, which is wrong) things now, our reward is in Heaven. And our reason for this is Jesus. And there truly is no greater reason.

When it comes to anyone that is sexually confused, or with any sin ever really, its not how God created us. Life is not supposed to be this way. We were all corrupted by the fall and how sin has infected everything. While you might believe that you were 'born this way', its not. Its not who you were made to be.

But good news! GOD CAN FIX IT!

The only thing worth placing our complete and total identity in is Jesus Christ, the son of God, who willingly came down from heaven to earth to be born of a teenage girl in the grossest place possible, to walk the earth for thirty years and experience every hardship and be tempted with every sin, to then die in the most torturous way that humans have ever devised, all for a chance at saving and redeeming His children. Every day, the more I learn about Him and what He has done for me, how can I not deny my impluses to lie and lust and be lazy and succumb to how my evil mind wants me to hurt myself and every other sin? He made the ultimate sacrifice so I could have but a chance at life. So from the moment I put my faith and trust in Him and was saved, until the day I die, I am going to continually deny myself for His sake, because he denyed Himself of His rightful glory for mine.

That's why I'm a Christian.

So when it comes to talking to anyone who is queer, or engaing with any piece of media that has a lot of queer representation in it, I love them and treat them the exact same way I would treat any other person or fandom. With the diginity and love and respect that they deserve as people. Whatever labels they put on themselves or whatever they think about anything ever, I'll be kind and gracious to them like how Christ has called me to. But, I won't accept a sinful lifestyle as okay, no matter the sin. I won't accept the lifestyles of ANYONE who disobeys God, not matter what the sin in question is, because every single lifestyle or belief apart from Him is sinful. But I will never turn my back on them, or treat them with disrespect or even hatred, and with every single desicion I make I do everything in my power to do exactly what God has called me to do.

Now. If you read all of this and now decide that you hate me, or just disagree with my beliefs, and want to block me here and my fandom sideblog, that's cool. I get it, I really do. I'm just glad that you listened to what I have to say here.

Like I said in that post though, I don't really talk about my faith in Jesus Christ on there at all? And in my writing (mostly unpublished yet though lol) I plan to touch on it slightly, because that's just how my Five runs through her life, but it doesn't like... change my perception of the story really? I love it and enjoy it! So while being a Christian is an integral part of my worldview and all that jazz, its not like I'm going to go into the ZR tag with a megaphone and scream, "I HATE QUEER PEOPLE!!!" And also because... that's not true.

I don't hate someone who disagrees with me or lives their life differently than I do just because we're different. That is just as much of a sin. So look, when it comes to fandom in general, I don't think it is the best place and time to talk about the Gospel and how Jesus has changed my life unless it nautrally comes up, not because I don't want to share how Jesus has radically changed the human condition of emptiness and guilt and shame, but because it's not exactly the perfect way to talk about these things. I personally think its more effective to have a deep converstation about what the meaning of life is and our place in it with someone I know personally, and I have a good relationship with, than just making a post that says 'ur an evil sinner who's going to hell repent or else' in a fandom space.

Also because that's a lie. You, reading this, no matter who you are, are no better or worse of a sinner than I am. We both deserve to die for our sins. But what the difference between us as of this moment is, is that I have been redeemed by Christ. And you can too. I'm praying for you, and if you have any follow up questions or want to learn more, I am here.

I'm sorry this was so long, but thank you for reading it! It became long because there are just so many important things that needed to be said when it comes to this.

[selamat-linting]

yknow growing up as lgbtq with an embarrassing kink and realizing sexuality from the lens of that fetish has always made me question myself. different from other ppl who grew up as a girl and realize theyre bi later in life, the first person i had a crush on was always women. the person i have daydreams for are always girls. i might have crushes on men, and i have plenty, and i talk a lot about it, but i can never find them sexually attractive from the lense of the kink i developed when i was seven years old. thats how i know im gay basically. i even have a case where a guy i had a crush on online turns out to be a girl, twice.

i guess i found men kind of gross in general? its strange. i thought i was a lesbian and then i thought i was asexual and had a whole angsty teenage phase about it that caused me to internally ping pong between two labels. like, i feel that my attraction to men is just comphet because i cant find them hot in this spesific scenario that always gets me good if a random woman was in it. i said i was bi, but its mostly because i dont mind dating men for social acceptability and friendship reasons, and because im still unsure if im a man or a woman or neither. i wouldnt mind dating men, some of them are nice and i dont think being friends and dating have much difference anyway. i have a guy irl that i absolutely adore and would love to cuddle for hours. but would i like it if i fuck them? not really. but i guess i have to do it because thats what a good partner is supposed to do. so thats the kind of bi i was from 2013-2022. even when i decided im genderfluid, not a full time girl nor a full time dude, my sexuality is very ambiguous.

until i saw that damned dog collar gifset and it sent me to a spiral. i began to find men legit hot in a physical way, and i develop a fixation on cm punk. i began to read a few porn, and i found a some... materials that happens to have my super secret embarrassing fetish that features him in it. and turns out im into it. like really really into it. he's different. i thought he'll simply end up as yet another men i like for a few months but can never truly have the hots with, but no. i really truly find him fuckable. the streak is broken. and he broke it.

so thats why im happy to call myself bi! i really am one. unless he decides to be a girl a few years down the line ofc. but thats unlikely right?

[m4ndysk4nkovich]

ok but debbie is not a lesbian? maybe im misremembering but didn't she try to get a gay man to sleep with her because she was bored and horny and it "didn't count since they're both gay"??

she was literally wasted and on cocaine😭 she didn’t feel any attraction towards him she just, like you said, was horny and he was the only person in sight. it’s fucked up but it’s true. not all lesbians are gold stars. ian slept with a girl and i don’t see y’all calling him bi. neither of them liked fucking the opposite gender, but they did it, yet you only call out debbie.

also, you call the random man who also slept with a woman (ms. debbie herself) gay, but debbie isn’t lesbian apparently?? this random guy we hardly know anything about get’s to claim the label of being gay, but debbie doesn’t get to say she’s a lesbian. right, that make’s sense.

[annekewrites]

Yet another grouchy old queer moment

Really tired of The Youths yelling "A is not for Ally and it never was!"

The first part...okay, fair enough. Aces and Aros shouldn't be erased.

But as an Old Queer? A absolutely was for Ally, back in my day. The original group at my college in the mid-1990s was GLBF (Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Friends). Remember that it was Gay-Straight Alliance long before it was "Gender and Sexuality Alliance" etc etc. And there were reasons for that.

Reason the First: Plausible deniability. Which some people who couldn't be safely out to their family desperately needed. Some kids might get grounded for supporting the queers, and entirely thrown out of the house after being beaten up for being known to be one of them.

Reason the Second: I know a lot of y'all don't like this, some of y'all don't believe this, but the Annoyingly Earnest, Overly Invested Ally to "uh...hey...wait a minute here!" pipeline? Is real. It's far FAR more real than the Loud Homophobe Who Is Seekritly Having Homosexual Thoughts. (Aside: I'm so incredibly sick and tired of people being nicer to or about the Loud Phobe "just in case" than they are to the Annoyingly Earnest "Ally" - like, what??) Yes, that includes the "bi woman's cishet boyfriend" who might just realize "sorry, neither" over time, and who is going to have a lot harder time having that realization if gatekeeping queerer-than-thous make his/their/her life hell for not figuring things out faster on his/their/her own.

Reason the Third: Learn some history, kids. Being a vocal ally to queer people absolutely was dangerous. It was...somewhere between 20 and 25 years ago, I don't remember exactly when, that the pastor of the UU church I went to in my mid-20s, in what was considered one of the gay-friendliest cities in a gay-friendly state, was receiving death threats and having the windows of his house broken for performing (non legally binding at the time) same-sex weddings. Very heterosexual, masculine man, husband and father, tattooed martial arts practitioner, later went on to be an Army chaplain. I remember people looking at the church budget and grumbling about the pastor's salary and snapping at them that THIS WAS HAZARD PAY. Because it was. It really was. Oh yeah, and that church's banners about supporting marriage equality got stolen, church otherwise got vandalized a bunch of times over this. So it wasn't even just the pastor, it was being known to be associated with that congregation. It was an entire thing. Around that same time, in that same city that I had moved to for its comparative queer-friendliness, I had a co-worker who was getting anonymous harassment at work for being vocally supportive of her out gay teenage son (who was, simply for BEING gay and out, getting falsely reported for sexually harassing classmates all over the place, it was a mess). She almost quit, but was scared that she'd be even less able to find a new job because of the reason.

Anyway. What I'm saying is this.

Including ace and aro folks in Pride: YES!

Ignoring our own history with this "A was NEVER for Ally, how dare the straights make it about themselves!" stuff: NOPE!

Besides...as I'm looking around at All The Politics Right Now...seems to me we need all the allies we can get! Let's not be damn fools about it.

[lapis-lazuliie]

i would love to hear your thoughts on the gay representation in ‘the referees a w***er’ (unless you’ve done so already) - would you see it as decent representation? bc i am undecided but definitely leaning towards no (considering their relationship is a secret and are both outed during the episode) but maybe it’s the best of a bad bunch?

firstly; before i get to answering your question, i just want to quickly establish the reason for there being a gay couple in the episode in the first place; because it's one thing to have LGBT rep in your show, but it's another thing entirely in how you handle it

secondly; i don't know anything about football, and though i've seen this ep a handful of times and read explanations from people of what it's about, i still don't understand it 🥲 but i did understand the love story and martins character. so this response is going to be mainly focused on that, which means i'll most likely get some things wrong ( please don't hesitate to correct me lol )

so homophobia is very rampant within male sports teams — football specifically, with justin fashanu being the first openly gay player in the history of premier football — and the lads wanted to touch on that by having the main character, martin, be a closeted gay man who was in a secret relationship with the opposing teams referee, calvin; the entire episodes focus on football is merely a backdrop to the real story — the relationship between martin & calvin. it's what drives martin to do what he did; he sacrificed himself and his lover being outed, thus ending their relationship ( among other things ), but he still got what he wanted; his team winning

to date, martin & calvin have been only 2/3 of the most well written ( being generous here ) LGBT characters steve & reece have ever had on the show ( the other being callum in merrily merrily ); neither of them follow the set rules the lads have given themselves in regards to how they write LGBT characters, whether they're openly gay or queer coded, the main character is an explicitly ( yet closeted, until outed ) gay man, and the relationship is treated with a tender and honest hand; it's clear steve & reece did want to shove their usual list aside to get this right

however

knowing their track record when it comes to LGBT rep, and their unwillingness to address the ( at most ) questionable things they've written, this is the bare minimum to me; it isn't great, but it's still passable for their standards

but considering how far we've come where we can have an openly bisexual teenager be in a healthy and loving relationship with a lesbian teenager in a children's cartoon, along with the explicit queer representation in ofmd and heartstopper, there is no reason or excuse for the lads to not be on similar par with their own representation

they still insist on writing a very specific queer rep that drives the narrative they're trying to tell, rather than just having an LGBT character exist within the story itself. while martin & calvin's relationship is merely a drop in the ocean of bare minimum representation, it's still exactly that. and that's not something to be praised

[worthless-weight-in-gold]

Pride Headcanons!!

Jim: extremely very certain he's gay, 100%. getting crushed under mountains of internalized homophobia that presents in wild ways, and also sitting on top of being bigoted to the whole entire rest of the community this man is a piece of shit--

Thew: she's in the "probably bi, might be a lesbian" category. she's gone on dates with men, she's gone on dates with women. she only has one proper ex which is a woman. she's not 100% sure what her sexuality is but kinda just lets things happen and doesn't worry about it too much

Min-Jee: 100% knows she's bi, 100% knows she's trans. she's known both since she was very young and kept her mouth shut to all but her closest friends about both until she felt she was in a safe and stable enough place to come out publicly

Porter: hey, he's literally just sitting. just chilling. he does not even have the desire to look for a label. he likes people. he sleeps around with all genders. he feels fine with he/him pronouns, but also feels fine when other pronouns are used. vibes only

Sanjit: he only feels romantic attraction to men, or the closest of what he feels that could be considered romantic attraction is only to men. he's also like, neither cis nor trans. his species dont really have a concept of gender but he did actively chose to be a man when making his human form, and now would be uncomfortable if he got misgendered in either form

Riah: genderfluid, bisexual, actively identifies confidently as both although doesn't talk about either unless directly asked. she has a preference for men, though, when it comes to hookups. she is very, VERY slow to and honestly just unlikely to develop romantic feelings for someone, but when she does its equally likely to be for a man or a woman or nonbinary

Bruce: gay! he also knew from very young that he was gay, and he was one of the "there's a lot of signs here that stereotypically point to a child being gay..." types. he never officially really came out, because he just went on dates with men and those who hadn't already assumed he was gay got the hint then

Noa: queer of some kind. she sometimes gets stressed about finding a more specific label but isn't always the best at telling what she's feeling, and also she's kinda a bit too busy for romance anyway which makes it harder. honestly she has a freakout about what her sexuality is every year like clockwork

Eun Yoo: she thinks she's straight and she's never really considered otherwise because pretty much everyone she's been close with has been straight and all the characters in the shows she watched or comics she read or games she played were straight and she's gotten crushes on boys before. it is totally normal to be a little in love with female friends, anyway. like, if you were a man, obviously you'd confess to them immediately and settle down together and get married and have a beautiful family but she's a woman so she doesn't ask out women so she's straight. (she's bi. she hasn't worked that out yet)

Thespian: thespian does not understand human conceptualizations of either sexuality or gender. thespian has a fringe angel sexuality and a normal angel gender. aka, thespian likes more than just those who it is appropriate to like (can develop feelings for people in different societal status than them), and their gender is mostly neutral but slightly feminine because they are the eldest (more on that here if u wanna know more)

[letmekeepyouentertained]

You can continue to see women and men as two opposite things with inherent differences and traits that are only exhibited in one or the other - or if you’d like to broaden your horizons you can talk to an afab man and an amab woman.

Talk to an intersex person who is physically neither, heck talk to a few of them because there are a lot of different ways to be intersex. Talk to someone who is straight and cis but has a hormone disorder that gives them the secondary sex characteristics opposite to the sex they were assigned at birth. Talk to a nonbinary person, then an agender person, then a genderfluid person. Talk to an “effeminate” man who is not gay and a “masculine” woman who is not a lesbian. Talk to a feminine lesbian and a masculine gay man and an amab lesbian and an afab gay man. Ask them “what’s the point?” then look in the mirror and ask yourself what’s the point.

Talk to someone from a culture with more than two genders, talk to someone from a culture that had more than two genders and was punished for it by colonizers, nearly wiping out the practice entirely. Look up what was considered masculine or feminine in the 1500s, the 1700s, the 1870s, the 1920s, the 1980s, etc, and how drastically those standards changed country to county.

Watch soft caring and sensitive boys beaten by their fathers until they learn not to cry, watch tough loud and abrasive girls berated by their mothers until they learn that they must make themselves meek. Watch toddlers at a daycare play dress-up and house and show love and care for each other regardless of gender.

You might see that there’s not as many strict differences between sexes as you thought.

Or you might only see the differences that match your current opinion and reinforce your stiff categorical boxes. Who’s to say. That’s my hot take.

I never said there was I never said that various experiences don’t exist. There’s always exceptions to every statement and belief, and truth lays in that of mere pattern finding. I, myself, had once been genderfluid. I’m agender for goodness sake and know what it’s like to be either, and I speak to queer people! Yet the internet is this interesting place we’re thoughts are singled out and my entire past and history and mind is hidden behind this secret wall that only will be seen if I speak on it. I understand sometimes I say dumb stuff but I also understand that other people exist with their own visions on things. Thanks for your input though, appreciate it. But like. Yeah

[winterprojectcolorpurple]

Queerness of Relationships

Harpo and Sofia get married and have a baby. With how Celie describes their relationships, Sofia is the more dominant one. Their unconventional relationship has Harpo questioning his relationship with Sofia. He battles with his happiness and insecurities around their relationship because it’s not stereotypical. At this time, the standard marriage is where the husband possesses tyrannical control over the entire household, including the wife who is usually much younger (even underaged). The wife is subjugated to the servant role, caring for the needs and desires of the family. Harpo loves Sofia, yet the societal expectations that encourage the abusive dynamic are deeply ingrained in his mind. He is desperate for some semblance of control within the relationship, so he listens to the advice of Mister and Celie. Celie’s inner resentment takes over when she encourages Harpo to beat Sofia. She envies the true love between Harpo and Sofia, while she still lives in fear of Mister. Something Sofia has that Celie doesn’t have is self-worth. Sofia knows that she doesn’t deserve a man who is willing to beat her so she’s willing to fight against that abuse, another point of envy for Celie. During their confrontation, Sofia compares Celie to her mother, describing her as, “Under my daddy foot. Anything he say, goes” (Walker 40). This comparison demonstrates Sofia's sympathy for Celie. Despite her anger, Sofia still shows compassion for Celie, encouraging her to stand up for herself.

"History repeats itself " due to the similarities between Mister and Shug's dynamic to Harpo and Sofia's. Shug and Sofia are both strong-headed women who aren’t afraid to say what’s on their minds. Mister and Harpo are weak-minded when it comes to those women, and both face criticism from their fathers as neither women are seen as the “ideal wife”. Mister was scared to enter into a relationship with Shug because he cared about other’s perceptions of her, especially his father. It is apparent how much he regrets that decision, as he heeds her every beck and call. Harpo has entered into this relationship with Sofia, but he still is concerned with maintaining the gendered stereotypes, causing them both to be unhappy. He feels the patriarchal urge to usurp Sofia and control her the way he sees the men in his life control their wives. His method of rectifying this supposed imbalance is to physically overpower Sofia, which is a difficult feat as she is a plus-sized woman who has experience fighting, so he begins to eat an excessive amount of food. Because a dynamic such as Mister and Celie’s are normalized and accepted within that time, Harp feels inadequate as a man because he cannot replicate that relationship with Sofia, even if it’s not what he truly wants. I think he truly does love Sofia and enjoys doing the household chores like she mentioned but that societal expectation looms over his head. He believes that an abusive relationship is the only acceptable relationship. 

I think there are clear queer undertones within the dynamics of Celie and Shug Avery. Celie idolizes this woman for her beauty and free spirit, which intensifies after meeting her. Celie describes Shug’s appearance, “her face as black as Harpo”, even noting how sick she looks, proving how much, she cares about Shug already (Walker 45). When she sees Shug Avery naked, Celie “thought [she] had turned into a man” a demonstration of her attraction to Shug (Walker 48). In the queer community is something known as the “gay awakening”, which is the moment when a person first realizes that they are queer. This can range from seeing something in a film/show to having an experience with another person. I think Shug Avery was Celie’s gay awakening. She might not know the word lesbian, but Celie does know that she is attracted to Shug the way a man would be attracted to a woman.